This review contains spoilers
Just about the best job they could have done at porting SMB1 and SMB2J on the GBC. The extra content (esp. You vs. Boo and Challenge Mode) is very well executed, and trying to 100% all the modes made me become a whole lot familiar with the levels and mechanics of OG Mario.
Indeed, the intense screen zoom causes problems. I would still rather have this than a game with a tiny Mario like in Super Mario Land, and besides, you get used to the limited field of view and to the camera controls. There have however been many situations where I was forced to do a leap of faith or where I got screwed over by an enemy that was out of my field of view, which was a tad bit annoying.
Furthermore, the devs fixed a lot of "bugs" in the ROM, the most noticeable of which being the enemy squish mechanic. In SMB1 and SMB2J, both on the NES/FDS and on All-Stars, you can squish enemies simply by having downward momentum. Therefore, you can easily bounce on enemies without actually being on their heads. However, in this version, they made it much more unforgiving; you actually have to bounce on the enemy's head to kill it. This might not seem like a big deal, but it caused me a lot of deaths that would have not happened on the original versions of the game, especially in the 8th world of SMB2J which relies heavily on obligatory flying Koopa bounces as a mechanic to progress to the end of the game. This simple bug fix, alongside the limited field of view, makes this (artificially) the most difficult version of the games out there.
Still, it's worth playing if you're an SMB1 fan just for that excellent and difficult challenge mode. It was very exciting to hunt for those badges, and the main mission made me revisit the games in a way I had never experienced them before!
Indeed, the intense screen zoom causes problems. I would still rather have this than a game with a tiny Mario like in Super Mario Land, and besides, you get used to the limited field of view and to the camera controls. There have however been many situations where I was forced to do a leap of faith or where I got screwed over by an enemy that was out of my field of view, which was a tad bit annoying.
Furthermore, the devs fixed a lot of "bugs" in the ROM, the most noticeable of which being the enemy squish mechanic. In SMB1 and SMB2J, both on the NES/FDS and on All-Stars, you can squish enemies simply by having downward momentum. Therefore, you can easily bounce on enemies without actually being on their heads. However, in this version, they made it much more unforgiving; you actually have to bounce on the enemy's head to kill it. This might not seem like a big deal, but it caused me a lot of deaths that would have not happened on the original versions of the game, especially in the 8th world of SMB2J which relies heavily on obligatory flying Koopa bounces as a mechanic to progress to the end of the game. This simple bug fix, alongside the limited field of view, makes this (artificially) the most difficult version of the games out there.
Still, it's worth playing if you're an SMB1 fan just for that excellent and difficult challenge mode. It was very exciting to hunt for those badges, and the main mission made me revisit the games in a way I had never experienced them before!